Everyone lies, even if only promising that the dress does not make you look fat or that you did not really stare at the pretty girl. Everyone lies, so it takes a lot to be known as a world class liar in a world filled with liars.

George Bush lied to America about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The cost was quite high in lives lost and fortunes spent. Barack Obama lied about the Affordable Care Act promising to save every family $2,500. Never happened. Republicans lied last year about shrinking our income tax forms to postcard size. Impossible.

But in each of the above examples, the lies were framed more in hopes that the claims would prove truthful than in intent to mislead. And that is the substance of politics, that, framing hopes as truths is the currency of everyday political rhetoric. As citizens, we do not like this attribute, but we know it exists, we see it daily, and it is the fabric of our lives.

Donald Trump is an entirely different case when it comes to lying. The president of the United States has historically been deemed as occasionally misinformed or misrepresented when floating falsehoods to the American people the media, who, by custom, have studiously avoided using the more direct and offensive term, “liar” in reference to the leader of the free world. This has been important because the American president needs to be trusted to represent our intents and interests to the rest of the world. This president cannot represent us with trust because he is not misinformed. This president is a liar and we need, in the media, to come forward and state clearly that he is a liar.

Last week the president’s lawyers confessed that the president dictated the response for his son, Donald Trump Jr., to explain why Trump Jr. and the top staff of Trump‘s campaign met with Russian government-connected individuals. That response was a lie, claiming the meeting was about adoption of Russian babies by Americans. The actual rationale for the meeting was to identify if there were ways the Trump campaign could collaborate with the Russians to harm the Clinton campaign. Whether or not the result of that meeting was a conspiracy with Russia to influence the U.S. election remains to be seen and is under investigation by the Mueller investigation.

But what is clear is that Trump lied that he did not write the response and lied again about the purpose of the meeting. And these are lies of material difference to the Mueller investigation.

Trump has asserted that he has not obstructed justice in the investigation of his presidential campaign, yet he told NBC’s Lester Holt on national TV that he fired the then Chief Investigator, James Comey, for the Russia investigation. One day later, Trump told Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that firing Comey had, “taken off great pressure” of the investigation. The president obstructed justice by firing the investigator for investigating.

Trump calls the investigators, “13 Democrats” when, in fact, all those he has named, Mueller, Rosenstein, Sessions, are Republicans. The president is lying.

Trump calls the investigation a “witch hunt” when, so far 13 individuals have been indicted, four have pleaded guilty and another has a trial upcoming this fall. His claim is not simply false, it is a lie intended to mislead the America public.

Finally, why should anyone believe Trump claim of innocence, given he lies to the American people daily and without shame? Frankly, the more the president insists he is not guilty, the guiltier he sounds.

It is time for the American media to end its civility with this president, for his lies are constant and intentional and need to be named for what they are, lies. Henry Miller, American author in the 1950’s once wrote, “Fiction and invention are the very fabric of life.” Miller was simply naming Trump’s daily rhetoric.

 

Jim Crawford is a retired educator, political enthusiast and award-winning columnist living here in the Tri-State.